Nokia claims 11.5% of the UK business market, gunning for number 2 by end 2013

MobileToday reports that Nokia is claiming to own 11.5% of the UK enterprise market, rising from nothing 18 months ago.

Nokia director of business sales for UK and Europe Adrian Williams said ‘Our market share with Windows Phone has grown from 0% to 11.5% in the last 18 months. Our ambition is to reach 20% by the end of 2013 as our momentum increases, which would position Nokia as number two in market share.’

To aid the cause Nokia is launching a £1m online and digital business marketing campaign this week, aimed at persuading corporate and SME businesses to switch to Nokia Lumia devices.

The campaign, with the slogan ‘Nokia Lumia: designed for life, built for business’, will target b2b managers responsible for their companies’ mobile strategy and will focus on the integration between Windows Phone and Microsoft infrastructure like Lync, SharePoint, OneNote, Exchange, Company Hub and SkyDrive.

Williams said: ‘What we will look to demonstrate is how enterprises can, and have, done more with many of the assets that they already have.’

Current first-place holder in the enterprise market in UK is beleaguered Blackberry, who is expected to rapidly lose market share.

BlackBerry’s head of enterprise developer partnerships, Gregg Ostrowski, confessed the recent acquisition of Nokia by Microsoft posed the greatest threat to BlackBerry’s current market position.

“Yes, I think we can safely say that with what Microsoft is doing with the Nokia acquisition, they have a very strong enterprise presence as well, so Microsoft is definitely going to be putting a good ‘kick to the can’ if you will,” he said.

Nokia UK chief Conor Pierce told MobileToday: ‘’We have been pushing on this door for two years and in the last six months those doors have never been more widely open with enterprises contacting us and operators, distributors and dealers all keen to drive our agenda.

‘They see the huge opportunities on offer because of the seamless integration as well as the support and integrated services we offer.’

Nokia recently won a number of key contracts from BlackBerry for its Nokia Lumia devices, including a lucrative deal with Britvic to supply 800 Lumia 720 smartphones to the soft drink manufacturer.

Encroaching even further on Blackberry territory Windows Phone recently won approval for government Bring Your Own Device schemes, opening up the lucrative public sector market which makes up 25% of the UK’s business sector.

Williams said: ‘There is clearly a growing opportunity for Nokia Lumia with Windows Phone to position ourselves as the natural and most compelling solution for business.’